Mississippi Holiday
by chakramchaser
Summary: Janice and Mel work on a particularly difficult case, and Mel decides that they need some time off.
1. Chapter 1

Sunlight flooded the dusty room as Janice Covington threw open the curtains, taking a deep breath. She smiled at the clear day laid out before her, but her face quickly fell when a moan came from the depths of the room.

"Rise and shine, Princess," Janice said with a sneer as she turned around to study the large queen-sized bed behind her. The yellow floral quilt was crumpled around a tall woman with brown hair who was shielding her eyes against the light.

"Oh my," she said, her Southern drawl retaining its elegance even in the waking hours. "Must you be so sudden?"

"Sudden, my ass…" Janice snorted and headed for the door. "We're due at the museum in an hour and a half, Sweetcheeks. I let you sleep in twice as long as you should have. And don't you be complaining," she cautioned with a wave of her finger. "Let's not forget that I slept on the floor so you could have the bed."

The brunette sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed, rubbing her eyes. "You know I do appreciate that, Janice," she said.

Janice's eyes softened and she gave the woman opposite her a half smile. "I know you do, Mel. Now go on and get dressed. I doubt that Doctor Remington would like it if you showed up to a business meeting in your nightgown."

"Well, I don't know about that," Mel quipped with a sly smile.

Janice couldn't help but laugh. She had far underestimated Melinda Pappas the first time they met, and now they were the best of friends. Janice thoroughly enjoyed the Southern belle's unexpectedly wit and dry sense of humour.

"How fancy is this meeting, Janice?" came Mel's voice from inside the small washroom. Her head appeared from behind the door a moment later, her hair freshly brushed and shining.

"Wear your navy suit," Janice said after considering for a moment. "It brings out your eyes."

**I I I I I**

Mel's heels clicked as she walked purposefully along the marble floors of the South Carolina Museum of Human History. She clutched a brown patent leather briefcase in her left hand and adjusted the way her glasses sat on her nose with her right.

Janice was right beside her, dressed in her standard khaki pants and white dress shirt with suspenders. She held her brown fedora in her hand, the bullet hole from Smythe's men in Macedonia still intact. She nudged Melinda with her elbow and gestured to the tear.

"Remember that?" she said with a small smile. "You were so terrified of them."

"I was not," Mel insisted with determination. "Just a little surprised was all. It's not every day a girl gets accosted by some man with a machine gun."

"If you remember, I was actually the one with the machine gun." Janice's eyes sparkled with excitement in remembering the magnificent confrontation. Her attention was brought back to the present when a man in a green suit stepped out from a room in front of them and shut the door quietly.

"Doctor Remington," Janice said with a professional smile. She held out her hand, which the man shook.

"Please, just Rem. It's great to meet you at last, Doctor Covington. And this is–" he gestured to Melinda.

"My associate, Melinda Pappas," Janice introduced her, as Rem took Mel's hand and kissed it delicately.

"Charmed," he said with a smile. Melinda nodded politely.

"Likewise," she said. She eyed Janice discreetly, sending a fed up look towards her. Janice understood and placed her hand comfortingly on the small of Melinda's back.

"Now, I understand that there's an artifact you'd like us to have a look at," Janice said. Rem nodded and opened the door for the two women.

"Right this way," he said. "Wait in here, please, and I'll run and fetch the crate." He held the door as Janice and Mel passed through into the conference room, then shut it softly behind them before hurrying off down the hallway and disappearing around a corner.

Mel and Janice took seats in the dark stained wooden chairs, and Janice sighed.

"What are you looking so morose about?" Melinda demanded, setting her briefcase on the table. "I'm the one who keeps getting approached by all these men. People never take me seriously."

"Sure they do, Mel," Janice said reassuringly. Mel shook her head, the brown waves of her hair moving slightly with the motion.

"You didn't," she said accusingly. Janice rolled her eyes and her head lolled back in exasperation.

"Now, Mel," she said. "I know I underestimated you. But look at us now! Traveling the world, solving ancient mysteries together. We couldn't do it without one another."

Mel started to reply, but the door to the conference room flew open and she stood instead. Rem and three other men were hauling a wooden crate the size of an icebox towards the table. Janice had the presence of mind to remove Melinda's briefcase from the table before the crate slammed down on the surface. Rem wiped his brow.

"Thank you, gentlemen," he said. "You can leave us now."

The three other men nodded and exited the room, shutting the door behind them. Janice joined Mel where she stood at the table, and they looked at each other in confusion.

"Ladies, are you ready?" Rem asked, his hand poised to pull the lid off the crate. "This could be the greatest discovery in human history to date,"

Janice looked at Mel, whose eyes were wide with anticipation. She looked at Rem and nodded.

"Go ahead," she said.

Rem began to pull at the wooden boards, the lid creaking as it was lifted. Finally it fell on the table, leaving the artifact exposed. Janice was speechless. The only sound in the room was Melinda's gasp.

"Oh my…"


	2. Chapter 2

Mel and Janice stood over the crate, speechless. Rem crossed his arms in front of his chest and raised an eyebrow.

"What do you make of it?" he asked. Janice looked up at him, her eyes wide and sparkling.

"It's beautiful," she said in wonder as she turned her attention back to the artifact. Mel reached her hand out slowly to run her finger along the edge of the thing.

It was a small obelisk, a single piece carved from white marble. Various shapes and types of gemstones were inlaid in the stone, forming delicate patterns. All along the faces of the obelisk were carved various ancient scriptures, which Rem pointed to.

"Can either of you make this out?" he said quizzically. "My men have been working on every possible code that we can think of for weeks and nothing's worked."

"Well, now, let's see…" Melinda adjusted her glasses and bent closer to the obelisk. After a moment of studying it, she stood straight again and looked at Rem.

"It's a very old dialect," she stated confidently. "Probably derived from Mycenaean Greek. As far as I can tell, it tells some sort of a story… Something to do with love."

Janice turned to Rem. "Can you stand it upright for us?"

Rem nodded and moved over towards the crate. After heaving on the obelisk a few times, he got it to shift enough so he could lift it up and set it down on the table. Janice inspected every side.

"It's exquisitely carved," she said. "Not a single crack in it. Where was it found?"

"Near the supposed location of the River Styx," Rem said. "That's what we can't figure out. Why would such a beautiful carving be at the edge of the Underworld?"

Janice scratched her head and sighed. "I'll need to think on this for a while," she said. "Mel, why don't you copy down the scripts and I'll sketch the thing. That is," she added, "assuming that we can't take it home."

Rem let out a booming laugh, surprisingly deep and hearty for his slight appearance. "I should think not! It's staying locked up right here."

Janice nodded as she took out a pad of paper and began to draw the obelisk, taking care with the lines and locations of the gemstones. Mel scribbled furiously on her own paper, trying to get down all of the script and noting which face of the obelisk it was from. Rem watched in wonder as the women compared notes and coordinated their efforts with low voices and few words. He laughed out loud.

Janice's head whipped around. "Something we can do for you, Rem?"

"No, no," he said, shaking his head. "I'm just watching you two work and it's uncanny. You flow so well, like you're a well-oiled machine. How long have you been partners?"

Janice looked up at Mel, who shrugged. "I don't know… 4 months?"

Rem's eyes widened and a small smile crossed his face. "You two seem to be on your own wavelength," he said.

"Well, what can I say?" Mel smiled and nudged Janice. "We were meant for each other."

**I I I I I**

The sun had long gone down and Janice was sprawled across the bed on her stomach. Her notes were spread all around her and circles of exhaustion sat heavily underneath her eyes. Her dirty blonde hair had come partially undone from the casual knot at the back of her head, and she rested her face in her hands.

"This doesn't make sense," she called out. Mel walked in from the small sitting room, holding a steaming mug of coffee. She set it in front of Janice, who smiled gratefully at the taller woman before drinking deeply.

"I've been puzzling over those scriptures myself," Mel sighed. "They're not making much sense to me either. I mean, I can read 'em alright…"

"I don't get it." Janice said. "You're pretty clever, Sweetcheeks. If you can read them, what's wrong?"

"Well, it's just that they're quite cryptic. There's no context." Mel sniffed delicately and pulled out a pad of paper with her notes on them. She sat next to Janice on the bed, placing the notes on her lap. "I haven't the slightest clue what they might be talking about."

Janice's gaze moved over the various scribbles and annotations in Mel's elegant handwriting, putting together the words.

_Persephone's gift shall not fall into the hands of the wench_

_For most deserving is the foam-arisen one_

_If this treasure the Soul makes an effort to clench_

_Then all she seeks will be turned to none_

"It almost sounds like a riddle, doesn't it?" Mel said, looking to Janice for her opinion. Her expression remained as confused as ever, though. Then, without warning, she moaned and dropped her head on the bed.

"What is it, Janice?" Mel said, resting her hand on the blonde woman's shoulder. Janice flipped over onto her back so she could see Mel.

"The worst thing about this is that an obelisk is the most random thing to find in Greece…" Her green eyes darted around the room aimlessly before coming to rest on Mel's face. "How the hell would it get there?"

"Maybe Xena brought it!" Mel said excitedly, her eyes lighting up. "She went to Egypt, didn't she? It was in one of the scrolls…"

"Don't get ahead of yourself," Janice said pessimistically. "Don't you think Gabrielle would have written something down about this? And even if it was them, how the hell would they have gotten it back to Greece?" She moaned again and banged her head, frustrated, back onto the mattress.

Mel looked at the distraught woman in front of her. When the blue in her eyes began to sparkle and dance, Janice propped herself up on an elbow.

"You've got a look," she said warily. "What are you plannin' now?"

Mel smiled coyly and stood. "Cancel your plans for the next two weeks," she instructed Janice. "We're going away."

"Where?" Janice said, utterly confused. Mel just giggled and smiled.

"You'll see," she said. With that, she gave Janice a kiss on the cheek and leapt up and headed for the door. Before she left, though, she turned around to face Janice again.

"You can have the bed tonight," she said with a grin before disappearing into the sitting room. Janice flopped back down, disgruntled, and wiped the kiss off of her cheek.

As resistant as she was to the excitement and mystery of this trip, she fell asleep with a smile on her face that night.


	3. Chapter 3

Melinda drove along a dusty, rocky road that seemed to wind around for miles. The landscape grew more and more forested, and Melinda was filled with a comforting sense of home. Janice was staring out the window, feeling the sun on her face.

"So where are we going, Princess?" she said. "Now that we're almost there I think you can tell me."

"Uh-uh," Mel said childishly as she shook her head. "We have about two minutes to go, you can wait until then."

Janice slumped back into her seat, beginning to get frustrated with her friend. She tipped her fedora down over her face and brooded.

A short time later, Melinda arrived at a stone fence. She drove through the opening in the middle and down the path. Janice's interest was again focused outside as she puzzled over the suddenly well-groomed landscape.

"Mel, what is this place?" she said suspiciously. At that moment Mel rounded a final corner and stopped the car, shutting off the ignition with a satisfied smile.

Janice exited the car and slammed the door behind her, marveling at their destination. They were face to face with a two-story house, with white wooden siding and green shutters. Trees provided strategically placed patches of shade where Janice could see herself reading a book or pondering an archaeological journal. She turned to Mel with a half-smile on her face.

"Come on now, darlin', what is this place?" she said, putting her hands on her hips.

"It used to be my daddy's," Mel explained. "I kept it around for a vacation place. I use it to get away sometimes."

Janice laughed, surveying the place once again. "Who knew?" she said. Then, after a moment, she considered Melinda again.

"You gonna let me in or what?"

"Oh!" Mel jumped, hurrying towards the door. She unlocked it and pushed it open with a flourish. Janice approached.

"Welcome to Pappas Place!" Mel exclaimed, a goofy nostalgic smile on her face. Janice entered the front room and was almost swept of her feet with amazement.

Directly in front of her was a magnificent white staircase leading up to the second floor. To her right was a room with double doors. It was filled from floor to ceiling, wall-to-wall with leather bound books. Comfortable looking furniture accompanied the floor lamps, and an impressive maplewood table stood in the middle.

To the left was a roomy, well-lit living space. Beyond it was a small dining room. Janice could also see a well-equipped kitchen to the right of the staircase. What excited her most, though, was the glitter of water she saw out the back window.

"Oh, Mel," she breathed. "It's just beautiful."

"I can show you around if you want," she replied with a smile. Janice turned around and pinched Mel's cheek affectionately.

"Where to first, Princess?"

"Well," Mel said. "Why don't you go get our things from the car and we can start upstairs."

As Janice ran out to the driveway to retrieve their suitcases, all doubt flew from her mind. She was sure this was going to be one hell of a holiday.


	4. Chapter 4

The warm yellow light from the bedside lamp bathed Janice's face and tinted her golden hair to a deep honey colour. A pencil hung from her mouth as she tapped the pad of paper with her fingertips.

She had hoped that the peace and quiet of the Mississippi river would settle her thoughts and somehow ease the puzzle together. Nothing was making sense, though. The obelisk, the riddle, the gemstones… She couldn't get them to fit together.

Before she had another chance to try, somebody knocked at the door. Janice's head flew up.

"Yeah," she called out. The door opened and Mel entered, wearing a red patterned dress with a full skirt. A brown knit shrug hugged her shoulders. She walked slowly towards the bed where Janice lay, a smile on her face.

"Hiya, Mel," Janice greeted her with a sigh. She set down her notes and looked up at her friend.

"May I?" Mel said, gesturing to the mattress. Janice nodded, and Mel settled herself at the foot of the bed. After a moment of reading over Janice's notes from a distance, Mel spoke.

"You know," she said, her drawl somehow more pronounced at night, "you should really take a break from all that. I brought you here to relax."

Janice leaned her head back against the wall and groaned. "I know, Doll," she said. "It's just not going to stop bugging me until I figure it out. Goddammit, I wish I had just one clue to help me along!"

"Now, no more of that," Mel chided as she grabbed Janice's wrist. When she stood, Janice was forced to as well or else have her arm torn out of its socket as a result of Mel's height.

"What?" Janice asked, irritated. "There's nothing wrong with mulling things over when I have a spare minute!"

"But darlin', you don't _have _a spare minute," Mel said with a tone that implied that Janice should have known. "I've got something planned for us." With that she left the room, pulling a very confused Janice along behind her.

**I I I I I**

The cool summer night enveloped the women as they walked in between the trees towards the water. Janice was too proud to admit that Mel had been right; she was enjoying the walk immensely. Even though she could feel her worries melting away with every step into the night, she trudged grudgingly behind the taller woman.

Mel stopped abruptly and turned to Janice. "Now, you wait here for a minute," she instructed.

"Why?" Janice said shortly, doing her best to hide the excitement building inside her. When Mel did nothing but giggle and hurry off into the darkness, Janice let a smile cross her face.

A few minutes later, she heard Mel's voice call out. "Okay, you can come on in!"

Janice took a few steps forward, searching for an indication of where she was supposed to go. When her eyes fell upon an orange blaze of a campfire, her heart warmed immediately. Mel sat on a log with a plaid blanket over her legs, staring into the fire with a smile on her face. She looked up at Janice expectantly, her eyes shimmering with mischief.

"Oh, Mel." Janice gave an incredulous laugh. "You didn't."

"Well, sure I did!" Mel said excitedly, that special smile of hers lighting up her face. "I brought you to the summer house to have some summer fun. And what does this look like to you?"

Janice sat down next to Mel and pulled the blanket over her legs, nudging Mel's knee with her own. "It looks just perfect," she said with a soft smile.

**I I I I I**

Their bellies were soon full of s'mores and their faces were warm from the fire. They had fallen to talking and Janice had a faraway look on her face.

"My dad would have loved this," she said fondly. "We used to go camping every once in a while, and he'd always make a great big fire just like this."

"Well, my daddy taught me how to light one!" Mel exclaimed. "He used to make a great big campfire right here every time we came out to the house. He'd teach me how to read the ancient texts he was working on."

The faraway look on Janice's face vanished as she looked up at Mel. "Looks like we've got something in common, then."

Mel smiled. "Looks like."

Janice took Mel's hand and squeezed it gently. "Thanks for this, Princess," she said in a low voice. "I didn't realize how much I needed it."

Mel smiled, the fire painting her face with tones of orange and gold. "I don't even think I realized how much _I _needed it."

They sat by the fire and watched it burn to glowing red embers. Only then did they collect their things and return back to the house.


End file.
